


Rosemary

by DarkAthena (seraphim_grace)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Space AU, eternal WIP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-20
Updated: 2014-09-20
Packaged: 2018-02-18 03:32:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2333690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphim_grace/pseuds/DarkAthena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the far future humanity was decimated by a disease called "the fall" in response they created the alpha and the omega, intended to be immune, but weren't, and the Argent Pursuivant whose job it was to find and eliminate the infected. Three hundred years later as the AP gain more control in the colonies a young Omega meets his alpha and the world goes to hell around them.</p><p>this was meant to be a big bang but as I wrote it I realised there was no way I could hit the deadline or keep it within a reasonable wordcount, so I shelved it<br/>but I might, most likely, probably will,  come back to this and give it the time it deserves<br/>alternatively if someone wants to take this and run with it let me know - I'm as eager to read it - just not so keen on actually writing it xp<br/>THIS IS UNFINISHED and might be abandoned, but I didnt' want people to think I've been doing nothing when I have so many wip I should be doing</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Stiles sat outside the mating suite with his feet tapping out a rough rhythm and every now and again stopping to wipe his hands on the fabric of his pants. Every now and again he swept his hand through his hair and took a deep breath that he hoped would calm him, but it wasn't working.

The Alpha that Deaton brought out of the medical bay was tall, with dark hair and a close cropped beard, he had straight wide cheekbones, an even forehead and light coloured eyes. His nose was good and strong, but his mouth was slightly open to reveal a pair of bunny teeth, the imperfection of which made him appear more perfect by their imperfection.

"This guy?" the boy asked the doctor who stood between them, "I mean, sure, he's hot, but," he shrugged. The doctor, Deaton, was a stocky black man with a shaved head and narrow eyes, he had a goatee around his mouth and a few tablet pens stuck into the pocket of his white coat. He wore dark pants over his skin suit with bulging pockets as was common of most Colony doctors, it made sense that the doctor of the "Balance of Judgement" to be the same.

"I assure you, Omega Stilinski," Deaton said in a calm modulated voice, the sort that managed to sound both condescending and enigmatic, "that Alpha Heyworth is your match, we have a 98% compatibility rating for the two of you."

"And what's the margin of error?" Stiles asked, licking his lips over and over, aware of the alpha watching him.

Deaton's expression looked well worn, used to the boy and tired of his behaviour all in one long breath. "Two percent." He said calmly, derailing the arguments. The alpha didn't seem to react at all. Stiles figured he was one of those strong, silent types, it was typical Stiles thought, that he would get sold into life bondage with someone who didn't speak.

"Do you have anything to add, Alpha Hayworth?"

The Alpha thought about it, "you ran the tests multiple times?" He asked looking across at Stiles who was sat with his hands between his knees, leaning forward in the uncomfortable ship chair.

"Absolutely, there are a few final DNA tests that need to be run, for any genetic disorders that any children would need to be inoculated against, checking your pedigree, that sort of thing, but the mating is perfect." He stood up and went to one of the fixed cabinets in the wall and pulled out a syringe in a sterile box, and a small ampoule of something clear. "Of course, due to Omega Stilinski's age, we will keep him on birth control for the next few years." With that he loaded the ampoule into an auto syringe and pressed it against Stiles neck. Stiles predictably yelped and pulled away. "If you would like to follow Marin to the mating suite."

"Mating suite?" Stiles asked, half standing, "that's not how this goes, Heather got months to know her alpha before they formalised the bond."

Deaton let out a low sigh, and rubbed the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb. "Omega Stilinski," he said formally, "Omega McNamara had a much lower rate of compatibility with her alpha, therefore we wanted to see if the compatibility would increase with familiarity, which it did, with your compatibility there is simply no room for improvement. Therefore, you are being escorted directly to the Mating Suite."

Stiles made a snort of derision, then extended his hand, "let's do this properly, okay," he said with the corner of his mouth curled up in distaste, not at the alpha, it seemed, but the system, "hi, I'm Stiles."

The alpha took his hand, Stiles noticing that the palm was dry although his own was damp with nerves. "I'm Derek." He said, and his voice was soft, which was not what Stiles had expected of him, most alphas were burly men with big deep voices, but Derek's voice was more tenor than baritone.

"See, Deaton," Stiles said, not letting go of Derek's hand, "it's not hard to lead with that.

stiles found he didn't want to let Derek's hand go, and Derek seemed to have no desire to pull it away either.

Deaton just looked at where they sat, holding hands. "A ninety eight percent compatibility, gentlemen." He repeated as if it was the only answer that they needed. It seemed to be the only one he did. "That will be all, gentlemen" he said, "I'll get Marin to take you to the Mating Suite."

"And if we don't want to mate?" Derek asked.

"You will." Deaton said, "the compatibility tests are never wrong."

"There's always a first time." Stiles protested.

Deaton appraised them both. "Then why haven't you let go?" His gaze looked at their hands and Stiles jerked his hand away once his attention was brought to it.

\--

Marin was the ship's Avatar, a humanoid robot who had been able, when she was created, to pass for human. Nearly four hundred years of hard use had meant that she was starting to show her age. She wore a single black glove, suggesting that her micro-filament skin was gone from that hand, and her hair was carefully coiffed to cover a bald spot. One of her eyes was a metal replacement although the other maintained it's glass lens.

Every ship had started it's life with a handful of these Avatars, each of them with their own name and personality although they all wore the same face, the one that the designers had created for the ship's AI, an ageless beauty often based on the ideal of an ancient queen. Those things had been important before the Fall.

She walked ahead of them with her head held high and a slight limp in her step as she took them to the "mating suite" which was really just an overflow of the sickbay, and had been the quarters of perhaps a set of doctors before the ship had been repurposed into what it was now. When she opened the door to guide them in she talked with a slight lisp.

"Thank you," Stiles said smiling at her, "is the Solomon Protocol in place?"

"Yeth," she answered.

"Use article seven over ride, authorisation Stilinski G, code bravo, echo, alpha, charlie, oscar, november, shut all the cameras and other recording devices down, allow Deaton to take readings only from our HUDs and then only life signs and exedrine counts, accept no other over-ride until the door unlocks, close command. Do you understand, Marin?"

"Yes, Omega." She said, and for a moment they were silent except for the whirring of her mechanical eye.

"Good, how many cameras are fixed in this room?"

"Six." She answered.

"Pervert," Stiles said and rolled his eyes, clearly talking about Deaton. "Come on, Derek, soonest mated, soonest we can be doing something else."

The mating suite was an old repurposed double bunk, the room was small, self enclosed with it's own Head and shower unit in a small adjunct beside the wardrobe, there was a screen, and under it a table with two chairs, and a bench along one of the walls. The bunks were on an angle against the corridors which were keyhole shaped to give more support to the ship from inside.

The top bunk had the shutters rolled down, but the bottom one, which had a good wide mattress, a thick blanket over a sheet, and two plump pillows was open and freshly made, for the mating obviously, Stiles thought. There was a chess board pattern on the table but no pieces. Stiles pulled off his jacket throwing it over the bench and opened one of the thin wardrobes, then the other, before he stood on the rim of the first bunk to open the second. There was no mattress just a thin spring cover on the bed, which he pulled away. Taking a small coin from his pocket he started to unscrew a small compartment opening the hatch. "and we're go." He said.

He reached and pulled out a small wooden box, putting it down beside where he was crouched in the bunk, and then a metal flask which he opened, sniffed, pulled a face, and then put it back. A paperback book followed. They were rare, most of them had been put in Darkholme years before for preservation, they were then scanned and made available through the HUD projector or even the older flexis.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked him, sitting on one of the fixed metal chairs by the table. On any kind of ship everything was fixed in place, things were locked away in cupboards, strapped in, or hung from rails. Before the ships were moored in orbit of their colonies it had been to prevent things collapsing everywhere every time the ship had to make a hard left. That there were caches of things everywhere didn't surprise Derek one bit.

"Looking for the chess pieces." Stiles said, and used his coin to close the cache, putting the springs back in place, before he hopped down. "We're in here until the mating takes." He pulled up his pants which hung low on his hips and then put the box on the table, "Deaton seems to think we'll just spend days fucking like rabbits, but I figured we could get to know each other first."

"How do you know we're locked in here?"

"Because I know Deaton." He answered sitting in the chair, he had a sort of sprawl to his limbs that made Derek want to lick his lips. The boy was beautiful. He really was. His eyes were a soft brown like taffy, and his mouth was practically obscene. "He's not going to let me out of here until I imprint, mostly because he hates me."

"I'm sure that's not the reason." Derek said, skinning off his jacket and hanging it on the back of the door.

"No," Stiles told him, "he hates me, he's using this every Omega needs mating bullshit to do this, they didn't do this with the other Omega on the ship."

"How many other Omega do you know?" Derek felt it was an honest question.

"Two." Stiles answered. "Heather was introduced to her Alpha and he courted her."

"What was their compatibility, Deaton seemed pretty keen on ours."

"67%." Stiles answered

Derek rolled his shoulders and sat down at the small table facing him and opened the box with the chess pieces, noticing a small deck of cards wedged in there as well. "You want to play white?" Derek suspected there was more to it than that. There was always more to it than that.

He placed the pieces out trying to forget the streams on the newsfeeds about O-bombs across the colonies.

O-bombs were weaponised Omega pheromones that once released caused the nearby alphas to go into a violent rut, with no omega nearby to satisfy the rut they turned on each other and everything around them until they were sedated or killed. The Argent Pursuivant were using it as an argument that alphas were to be segregated from the Beta population that made up the most of the colonies. There had been three attacks in the last six months, the thing was no one knew what these terrorist groups wanted, or why the ships hadn't been attacked.

An unmated Omega hadn't imprinted and so his pheromones would be at their most potent, trying to attract a mate. Of all the genetic tinkering that had taken place after the Fall with it's unexpected side effects, the Omega pheromones were generally considered to be the biggest mistake, and that included the Heavy Gravity worlders who weighed so much that their muscles would snap in zero-g without the heavy gravity to pull them down. Derek's own alpha physiognomy had been crafted by those men tinkering with genetics as they tried to create an immunity to the Fall.

An Omega was a time-bomb with there pheromones gaining strength until they imprinted when it became focussed on their mate, their alpha - and Derek had been chosen as the mate of this Omega.

"Of course," Stiles said, lifting one of the pieces, a queen, and rubbing the pad of his thumb over it, "we could just fuck, get it over with."

Derek nearly choked.

\--

Stiles had taken off the shirt of his skinsuit sometime around their fourth game of rummy, they had avoided personal topics but talked around them very well, Stiles talked a lot, but he was happy to listen when Derek did speak up, talking about clearing rocks for the new reservoir on Tau Volantis, and how it felt to work one of the large exo-suits, and how odd it felt to wear a heavy duty rig and the giant exo to move, or break up, large rocks to clear the way. Stiles was fascinated, he admitted his job on ship was working on the avatars. He was trying to rebuild them, but at the moment, even with access to Marin and a few broken avatars that had been stored away for spare parts he was only able to make basic models because he didn't have access to the monofiliment baths that formed their skin.

Stiles was dotted with moles, like someone had run a thumb over an old paintbrush and let the spatters stay where they fell, and hanging under his collarbone was a small round pendant. He had shown it to Derek without reservation pointing out that it had been a gift from his mother before she died. It was a familiar design,13 circles, each with a different phase of the old Earth Moon and in the centre was a triskele, spiralling in on itself. Derek knew the design well, he had had it tattooed on his back. It was the old crest of the Endymion. Inside the delicate filigree of the pendant was a piece of what looked like abalone. The necklace was beautiful, but he didn't know why an Omega on the "Balance of Judgement" was wearing a pendant depicting the Endymion.

Stiles stretched his arms above his head and cracked his neck, "fucking Deaton," he said putting down his cards. There was sweat beading his hair line. "He fucking triggered my heat, asshole."

"As your alpha," Derek said picking up a card from the pile in the centre and switching it out, "do you want me to kill him?"

Stiles seemed to think about it for a moment before deciding. "Yes," he said, twisting his chair so he could climb out. "Sorry about this."

"Not your fault." Derek answered, watching as Stiles got a bulb of juice from the cooler, rolling it around his neck. He had an image of him spread out and yearning, like something from the porn films you could find on Rift with the omega slick running down their thighs and them begging endlessly unable to be satisfied until it passed. Until he was bred.

Intellectually he knew that most O-porn was betas who took inhibition inhibiters and used lots of lube, but the Alpha part of him was reacting to Stiles' scent. His forebrain was telling him it was inappropriate to cause this boy to imprint on him because he was a virtual stranger, even without his secrets and his past, but his Alpha brain was saying, fuck, knot, breed. He wasn't entirely sure it was all rut either.

"The worst thing about heat," Stiles said, sweeping his hair dark back from his forehead, "isn't the sweat, it's the crankiness, I'm sorry, I'm awful when I'm in heat."

Derek tried to parse that and failed, everything he knew about Omegas suggested that they became insatiable fuck machines when they went into heat, and Stiles was telling him that it wasn't true. He thought about it for a moment, in the feeds, managed by the Argent Pursuivant he realised, alphas were seen as lumbering beasts almost too stupid to string together a sentence and not capable of anything other than heavy labour too dangerous to risk betas on, they were inseminators and lugs, when the opposite was true. Alphas were as capable of gentleness as a beta, if not more so, due to their genetic drive to protect, and if Alphas were misrepresented maybe Omegas were too, maybe they weren't just insatiable holes. Stiles had said that he was working rebuilding avatars, that wasn't the sort of work that they would trust to someone incapable of work several days every month.

"Sorry," Derek said, realising he had been quiet and stiles was waiting for a response, "I just realised an awful lot of what we see on the feeds is complete bullshit."

Stiles grinned at him. "Don't worry," he said condescendingly, "we all get there, eventually."

\--

Stiles rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before he looked up from his workbench at his father, "you want me to bring my forced bondmate to dinner," he said, "at the captain's table," he continued, "before we've even been assigned a shared bunk?" he asked, "I'm still in the nursery with the baby O's." He said. It wasn't quite true, the baby O's as he called them, were kept in a separate part of the nursery, grouped by age, as a grown up he had his own section that he had shared with Lydia and Heather, the other two Omega on the "Balance"

Put like that the Captain realised that this might not be the best idea, he ran his hand over his head looking a bit abashed. "I'll make sure you know where you're bunked before dinner," he said and looked across at his second, Parrish who had already opened up his HUD interface.

Parrish was a young man, barely older than Derek was, Stiles guessed, with short dark hair and bright eyes. He had a sunny disposition and seemed completely at odds with his position as the Executive Officer, or XO, of the "Balance of Judgement."

The "Balance" had, in it's previous life, being a war ship, set to defend the USG from all comers as more and the large corporations replaced countries, when the Fall came, it didn't matter. The ship was clean of infection, it worked with the quarantine stations and took everyone it could to the colony systems like an Ark. The ships history meant it kept some military traditions, like rank, but for the most part it was a free for all around the central, demilitarised government. Stiles' father had earned the position by serving as XO before the old captain retired. If Stiles had not been an Omega he would have started in the crew just like everyone else, even though his father was the captain.

Omegas, or O's, were raised to work in science and engineering, because they needed work that they could abandon for childbirth. It was overlooked that the children were often taken from them and given to either less valuable Omega, those who enjoyed child rearing, or beta families. The population was so sparse that pregnancy was considered a more valuable use of their time than endless childrearing, so those that wanted to rear the children did so in volume, and there were always beta families who wanted a child, unable to have one of their own. There was no stigma involved, children were far too precious a commodity for anything else.

A bonded Omega was a baby factory, and Stiles had been raised to know that, and to know that he wouldn't get to choose his alpha, and that he might not get to keep his babies, so instead he had his avatars and his father, whom he adored.

"There you go, Stiles," Parrish told him, "I've put you on C-deck, near the goats."

Stiles beamed at him, he had always loved the goats growing up, much of the ship's wealth in trade came from them, but Stiles had loved them because they were as crazy and manic as he was. "I've sent the details to your HUD," Stiles nodded.

"So no excuses," his father said, "I'll see you and your new alpha for dinner at nine."

"You just want the excuse to sit in front of him fondling your force lance meaningfully." The captain just turned to leave, shaking his head, "and I don't totally didn't mean that as an innuendo, it just sounded like one." Parrish made a sort of snorting laugh noise as he followed behind his captain. "Parrish gets it, of course, he's got a force lance too."

"Quit while you're ahead, Stiles," his father's voice came back, "and remember, nine."

\--

Malia Tate was an alpha who served on the same floor as Stiles had his engineering lab, well he called it a lab most people called it a closet with a shelf and a chair where he could work without distracting others with his incessant chatter. She had always been friendly, bringing him hot tea and reminding him if it got late that he did need to go back to the nursery. She was a beautiful girl, with soft light brown hair, deep black eyes and a slightly open mouth, she had the sort of skin an omega would kill for, and the perfect alpha figure it back it up.

She wore her uniform jacket over an all in one skin suit that ended at mid thigh, with thigh high stockings in the skin suit material - it was an option that some female alphas chose, using their sexuality like a weapon, with a force lance, fully extended, across her back. She worked security because she had anger issues and it was accepted it was the best role for her.

Her nose crinkled when she found him, "what the hell, stiles?" she asked.

"What?" He raised his arm to sniff under his armpit, "I showered this morning." He had as well, he had been so careful in the shower, making sure to wash the last of his bonding from his skin.

"You mated!" she said, backing off from him, "you were supposed to tell me, I was supposed to be your bondmate." She was livid.

"It doesn't work like that, Mal," he said calmly, in his anger he went cold and disappointed like his father, "I know you know that, I'm an O," he said, "that means I bond with whoever they tell me to, not whoever decides that they are my bondmate." He went to push past her but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He looked at it, "don't touch me," he said moving her hand.

"You're mine, Stiles, it doesn't matter what they say, I love you. I've spent years showing you that."

Stiles took a deep breath, "no, Mal, you've followed me as closely as you can whilst being a chaperone, I'm not yours, I'm my own, and the alpha they found for me, he understands that after knowing me less than a week, I thought I knew you." He went to walk past her again but again she stopped him.

"This isn't over."

"Yes, it is," said another voice. Kira Yukimura was one of the security betas that watched over the nursery. She slipped herself between the two of them, even though Malia stood nearly a half a head taller than her. She wore the skin suit and jacket combo that Malia wore but where Malia exuded menace Kira was capable, with her black hair cropped short at the back to fall in bangs around her face. "Let him go, Malia, and I won't have to take you to the brig for manhandling him againt his will."

Malia turned on Kira with a snarl, Kira just smiled back as she slipped her force lance from it's sheathe on her thigh, extended it and swept Malia's legs from under her in a single practised move. "You obviously need to calm down a little," she said with her forcelance against Malia's throat. The force lances were used primarily as a melee weapon but each held up to twenty blasts if they were fully charged. "This isn't Rift," she said,"people don't own each other, and if someone did own Stiles it would be his new alpha, so a night in the brig will calm you down, don't you, Malia?" she pushed the call button on her HUD to call for back up,"but now apologise."

"Kira," Stiles protested. Malia had been a Rift kid, she had grown up in a world that was entirely lawless, that she was better now was remarkable, most Rift kids were caught in that spiral, even when ships or colonies took them in. Malia coped most days, but clearly she wasn't always capable.

"No, she's going to apologise and you're going to go see that new alpha of yours, scuttlebut says he's divine."

Stiles blushed, rubbing his hand over his short hair,"well, I might be a bit biased," he started as Malia started to struggle,"but I like him. He doesn't talk too much, but he's happy to listen."

Malia was spewing obscenities now, amidst protestations of mine as she reached for Stiles. Kira looked down at her, before she turned a dial on the shock lance and gave her a mild electrical shock, just enough to knock her out. "That's great, Stiles, I know you were worried you'd get an alpha that didn't like you."

"Or Malia," he added under his breath.

"Malia's a Rift kid," Kira said with a shrug,"they don't even get put in for genetic compatibility testing, you know that, too many blasted genomes." Rift kids were born without genetic testing, they were unsafe, and had a higher level of irregulars, the colonies did their best to save those kids, born to beta women and left to the warrens of the space station, most of them died young, but not all of them could be saved.

"Yeah, I know, but," he stopped and then grinned at her,"Derek's great," he said,"really, he's patient," he leaned against the wall, long and lean against the curve of the ship's corridor. "But Dad is still going to threaten him with his force lance."

Kira laughed,"he's been waiting to do that since you were born." She looked over at the guards who had come running to take Malia to the brig,"you should get along, Stiles, make sure your alpha doesn't worry, we've got this." 

 

02

Stiles was slouched in his chair, scowling as he moved his dinner around the plate with his fork in bad temper. His father sat at the head of the table unmoved, in fact complimenting the quartermaster on his choice of chef for the evening.

A quiet, intimate dinner between Stiles, his dad and his new alpha had turned into a state affair with the captain and the premier crew, and poor Derek sitting there looking like he might at any moment either vomit or explode into flame from embarrassment. He had barely eaten himself, pushing his nori to the side where Stiles knew he generally liked it. He clearly had no appetite, and Stiles didn't blame him.

It was just supposed to be Stiles, his dad and Derek, not Parrish, Melissa, Scott, Deaton and about six others. There were even courses to the dinner. This was not a private meet the parents sort of thing, this was an embarrassing show that had Lydia, one of the other Omegas who was present, all over it. Lydia liked a spectacle and she had made this one, Stiles was sure.

And because he was facing Derek Stiles couldn't even reassure him without it being really obvious, which made it worse. Omegas were, according to literature, born nurturers and STiles had never felt it before now, but he wanted to touch Derek, to tell him it was okay, and that heads would roll, even though Stiles knew they wouldn't.

At least his dad still had his force lance minimsed on his thigh, and it wasn't on the table.

Derek cut into his boiled egg with the side of his fork hard enough that the plate clanged against it. "sorry," he said, with his head down.

"Dad," Stiles said, finally reaching the very edge of his tether,"I told you, he's shy."

"A shy alpha," Lydia said with a smile,"don't be silly, Stiles." She popped her fork into her mouth and chewed meaningfully. She was Parrish' Omega and it allowed her certain freedoms even though they weren't bonded yet. "You know it's not in their genetic coding."

"Strange," Stiles answered,"how it's not in the genetic coding for omegas to find other omega's attractive." He said with a smile, Lydia had crushed on an omega from another ship for years, even arguing with Deaton over bonding because she was in love, right up until the other Omega, a male, was bonded. Stiles heard that he was happy in his relationship, and like Heather, pregnant. In a year or so, Stiles supposed, he and Lydia would be too, it was, after all, the fate of Omegas.

"Children." Melissa said looking across at the two of them,"so Derek," she said trying to include him int he conversation,"what did you do on the Colony?"

Before Derek cut in Stiles' father answered,"yes, Derek, what did you do on the colony? I have questions, that as an alpha you are in a rare position to answer."

"Daaaaaad," Stiles whined as his father talked over him.

"I send five tonnes of nutridisks to the colony every month but only four ever makes it to the warehouses, and I haven't heard anything from the security alphas as to where it's going."

Derek raised his head,"I'm afraid you're mistaken, sir," he said, and even though the captain maintained his gaze Derek didn't back down. "There are no security alphas on the colony, there are only three squads, all of which are in construction."

"No," the captain corrected,"there are four, there are nearly one hundred alphas listed as working in security." He opened up the screen on his HUD to show him.

"Then your records are wrong," Derek replied,"there are barely that many alphas on the colony, most are encouraged to leave, to make for more friendly environments like Solarian Prime or even Ix." He was speaking very politely and firmly,"security is handled by AP."

Scott made a noise at that, like he was choking on something that he had put in his mouth. Stiles knew he was being courted, as a beta with a high ranking mother, by the AP, but they weren't welcome on the "Balance." Most of the colony ships did not tolerate the AP, although it was only Rift that had enacted a shoot on sight policy.

The AP, or Argent Pursuivant, were a private militarised group that was dedicated to order in the colonies, they had started working to eradicate the Fall, and eventually came to hold the position of a sort of independant police force, but in the last forty years or so their reputation had gone to hell. They were also exclusively, and famously, beta only. There was even talk that they were behind some of the latest anti-alpha/omega rallies, but there was never any proof.

The only thing that Stiles knew for certain was that Gerard Argent, head of the group, creeped him out, and his daughter and lieutenant, Kate, made his skin crawl. On the few occasions that she had been on the Balance she had looked at Stiles like he was dinner and she wished to lick the plate. In fact, if he hadn't been so sure she was beta because she was AP, he would have sworn she was an alpha.

Scott put down his fork,"you're just accusing them because you're an alpha." He said. "The AP aren't about you so you have a problem with them."

Derek said nothing. "I'm not an alpha, Scott," Stiles said,"and well, I haven't trusted them since the Endymion. I always felt it was terribly coincidental that no sooner does Captain Hale mention starting an enquiry about them that her ship blows up" he gave a wry smile at the words.

"Stiles," his father said,"that was a terrible tragedy." Scott clearly bristled in his seat.

"Was it though," Noshiko said, she was the pilot at least in name, Stiles wasn't exactly what it was she did, her husband Ken, Kira's father, helped teach the children on the ship,"I always found it interesting that a faulty baffle plate lead to the explosion," she said calmly,"being as a baffle plate contains radiation."

Derek murmured something. Stiles father turned ot him,"speak up, kiddo," he said, using the same pet name he used for his son, Stiles noticed, he'd adopted Derek bonding partner of his biological son or not.

"The Endymion didn't have a baffle plate." He said,"she was solar."

There was silence for a moment before Scott went to say something,"leave it, son," Stiles' dad told him,"we know you want to join the AP and that's your decision, but if what they're saying is right then it is incredibly suspicious, but at this point nothing more than that. We're here tonight not to talk about old losses, but to celebrate what we've gained, so Derek, welcome to the "Balance of Judgement. I understand Wren put you in with the goats."

Wren, the head of farming aboard ship, had a grin like a knife's edge. "I thought I'd surround with animals nearly as energetic as Stiles."

\--

"What the hell, dad?" Stiles asked after everyone was gone and he helped clear the plates to the dumb waiter in the corner,"this was supposed to be the three of us, I wouldn't have agreed if I'd known about all this." He gestured to the table,"I told you that Derek was shy."

Derek made a noise at the attention brought to him that sounded like a Hn.

"Parrish told Lydia," the captain said, picking up the water jugs in one hand,"and Lydia hasn't got out of the Nursery in weeks, you know he wants to please her, I had no more choice in this than you did."

"Bullshit," Stiles told him,"you could easily have told Lydia no, you've done it before, and Lydia gets out of the Nursery all the time, hell, a week ago I had been in the nursery for weeks at a time, I know exactly how much bullshit it is, Parrish can't tell her no, so Lydia lords it around here like a queen."

"Stiles," his father said in a low threatening tone.

"It's not fair, Dad, Heather doesn't get this behaviour and she's as big as a house right now, but Lydia."

"Stiles," Derek said,"it's okay."

Stiles stopped and scrubbed both hands through his hair with a long slow exhale of breath. "I just," he stopped,"it's not fair."

Derek stepped up behind him, broader than Stiles, although they stood of a height, and rested his hand on the back of his neck,"it's not fair, life rarely is, but it's okay, you can let it go." And Stiles deflated like someone had let the air out of him, the tension just slipped from his shoulders and Stiles' father had never seen anything like it, and he had known imprinted pairs before. Stiles trusted his alpha completely, and that wasn't something that normally happened in the mating suite. Stiles raised his head and murmured something to Derek that his father didn't catch.

"I'm going back to my bunk," he said,"Derek, are you coming?"

"Not just yet, I'll be along in a minute." And Stiles nodded before leaving.

Most imprinted couples had some level of intimacy, private little touches that were their's alone, it wasn't unique to the bonding process, but it seemed to grow quicker, perhaps that's what a week of being locked alone in a room did, but Derek and Stiles seemed comfortable in each other's presence, like they shored up the other and it reassured the captain to see it in his son, even though imprinting really only meant that Stiles' body had decided that Derek would be the father of his children, changing his pheromone make up to repulse other alphas.

"Thank you for being so welcoming," Derek said as he gathered the plates in his hand,"I know it means a lot to Stiles, sir."

"Do we get to meet your family, Derek?" the captain asked him.

"No, they died on the Endymion." He answered calmly.

The captain went quiet, a lot of very good people had died on the Endymion, where nearly four hundred souls were lost. "I'm sorry to hear that, my own wife, Stiles' mother, died onboard, I can't share your loss but I know what it's like to lose someone you loved dearly."

Derek didn't say anything, just gathered up the last of the crockery to send it to be washed, then when everything was done, and he had wiped the table down, another sign of him being shipborn, colony born didn't think of such silly things as crumbs in space and how stupidly dangerous they could be, he went to leave, and then stopped. He reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a fat paperback book. "We found this in the mating suite." He said,"it should go to Darkholme."

The Captain took it carefully, noting the title, 'Les Miserables, Vol 1.' "Did you read it?" he asked.

"A few pages," he answered,"when Stiles was sleeping. We mostly played cards."

"I was younger than Stiles when I read it, the Balance's captain at the time believed all of his officers should read it, and I'm still not sure I disagree." He stopped for a moment, scrubbing his hand through his hair like his son did. "It's about a man who is punished harshly for a meaningless crime, when he gets out he is given a restriction that will send him back to jail regardless, so he runs away, and becomes a good man, a great man even. But when faced with the police officer who imprisoned him he makes a mistake and spends the next twenty years atoning for it as the officer chases him down for breaking the senseless law, because he is a man who defines himself by the law, and in chasing the criminal learns that laws can be unjust." He looked at the book in his hand. "It's a worthwhile read, if not a fun one, it's on the ship's databank, get Stiles to download it unto your HUD."

"Yes, sir." Derek told him.

"And Derek, you don't have to call me sir." Derek didn't answer that, just gave a quick military salute and left the room.

He was a little surprised when, an hour later, he checked the databank and found tha the book had been downloaded to him. "Well, Claudia," he said to the memory of his late wife,"looks like our little boy has got himself a man," he sighed,"Let's just hope it's one who can keep him safe."

\--

 

Stiles wasn't sure how long he was asleep when the lights flared to 100% and the bunk's alarm blared in his ear. He sat up quick enough he damn near brained himself on the bunk's ceiling. He wasn't the only one, there was a thump from beneath him where Derek had been asleep in the bottom bunk. The door slid open and Marin came in. She was wearing a formal uniform and her hair was swept back from her face, and in the searing light she looked like a dark shadow.

"'Sit morning, now?" Stiles asked. Derek rolled out of the bunk and had his feet in his boots.

"Get ready," Marin said,"captain's orders, take what you need only and meet him at the shuttle bay, we need you both off the ship as soon as possible."

"Why?" Stiles asked even as he tugged on his skin suit. Derek clearly had slept in his.

"We recieved word that the AP are en route, and it appearth to be Kate Argent herthelf." Marin said with her strange lisp, but she maintained her cold equanimity, even though Derek dropped his jacket, his life monitor, a metal series of links that went down the spine showing his health in a strip of coloured light, clanged into the floor.

They said nothing as they gathered their things but Derek was clearly distressed.

The "Balance" was a large war ship, over a mile long and half as long wide, and maybe double that deep, and had, every twenty floors or so a tram system that ran from aft to stern. This late at night they were used primarily for shipping cargo from the floors given over to agriculture to the shuttle bay where the vast majority to the colony, or further down to the manufacturing and then to the colony.

"I'm sorry about this," Stiles said, popping off the casing of his HUD to reveal the wiring in his wrist, before he took the casing that Marin had given them when they climbed on the tram, both were beta gold instead of omega blue or alpha red. They would mask their signatures to the computer scanners, but a medical examination would prove them false. It would just allow them to move more freely through the colony.

"Not your fault," Derek said, then held out his wrist for Stiles to adjust the chip and casing on his HUD, he couldn't hve said then why he trusted him, but Stiles hands were sure as they worked, even with the odd judder of the tram beneath them.

"It kinda is," Stiles said,"I was part of the Exedrine experiment," he said quietly, it was an experiement where they gave barren betas a synthetic version of the hormone that created alphas, in it's prime state called Exedrine, or Ex, A, or in it's alter state as Ex-O, where it created Omegas instead of betas. The idea was it would increase fertility and allow them to have children. The situation was deemed a hideous failure as of the 500 beta women who were part of the test perhaps only a hundred managed live births, and of those hundred most were born as "irregulars", or unable to breed. "It was always a big fuck you to the Argents who opposed the experiment that all the healthy babies were omega, hell even the irregulars were omega, and then when it turned out i had a hyperactivity disorder and they fitted me with a shock implant," Derek's eyes narrowed at that information, shock implants were common for treating chemical disorders of the brain, like Pandorum or shock sickness, but they could be hacked, and there were brothels in places like Rift that offered kids with shock implants numbed and desensitised or even turned off to those that had the credits. In the wrong hands a shock implant worked like a slave control and it meant that anyone with the controller for Stiles' implant would control him like a marionette,"that they could use me as a token, I mean imagine it, a male omega shunning the class strata that makes Omega so valuable and shacking up with a beta, even if I had no choice in the matter."

"And Kate was the beta they wanted you to shack up with?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, she always looked at me like I was hers, she used to touch me, nowhere inappropriate, but all the fucking time, and I hated it, so my dad said if she ever came for me he'd send me somewhere I'd be safe, and if she's coming it must be because I'm old enough to be imprinted." He let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry, but hey, on the bright side I always wanted to see Solarian Prime."

Derek reached down and took stiles hand, the one holding the omni tool, in his own hand and squeezed it,"Kate Argent is a predator," he said,"and there is no shame in running for her, but Cenarion Phi is further."

"Rift has a strict no AP policy, they shoot them on sight."

Derek smiled at him,"I was thinking Ix." Ix was the planet where most of the Irregulars found themselves, it was technologically based and on he far side of the galaxy from Tau Volantis where the "Balance" orbitted.

Stiles bumbled forward and kissed Derek softly on the mouth, almost surprising himself by doing it. "Thank you," he said.

Derek licked his lips and then made his mouth a thin line. "We all have our reasons to hate the AP."

"Except Scott," Stiles said, then clipped the casing back over Derek's HUD,"he met Allison Argent and now is practically sworn to their service. I mean for weeks all he's talked about is her, her hair, her eyes, how she smells, like angels ought to smell apparently, and he completely overlooks all their bullshit because she's perfect." He made a disgusted sound,"i mean I met her too, she smelled kinda like ozone to me, but apparently that's how angels smell, I mean you smell good, you smell much nicer than she did, but that's because you're my alpha and my body tells me you smell good because you knotted me, but I mean, Scott, she's pretty in a bland sort of way, not nearly as pretty as Lydia, but Lydia would devour him whole, i think she'd just unhinge her jaw to do it, so having a militiarised soldier is obviously a step up."

"So this shock implant," Derek said with a sort of half smile so that Stiles could tell he was joking,"does it make you breathe through your ears?"

The look that Stiles gave him back was lascivious,"you wanna find out, big guy?" he asked waggling his eyebrows. Derek just rolled his eyes, but he took Stiles hand in his own and rubbed the pad of his thumb over the omega's palm.

 

03

Tau Volantis was the colony that was shadowed by the "Balance of Judgement" which hung in the air above it like a country sized brick. Unlike most colony worlds Tau Volantis had water and a mostly breathable atmosphere, however the resting temperature of the world at midday under it's sun was minus 50 centigrade, so the dome served mostly to keep heat in and the pervasive cold out, even so the colony sat at mostly freezing. The colonist wore either cold weather rigs, which were heavily padded and allowed them to work outside the dome, or heavy felt clothes made from goat hair, with thick caps over their hairs. Even children, who ran wild about the colony, were wrapped up in heavy wool to keep them warm as their breathe misted in front of them.

Waiting for them at the shuttle to take them down to the planet, which was a four hour journey, was a packet of thick colony based clothes and the distinctive felt boots that all the colonists wore, being both water proof and warm. The knit cap Stiles was wearing had flaps down over his ears and looked like it had served many masters before coming to him. His cheeks were ruddy with the cold and he had his hand shoved into a pair of mittens knitted with a design of dragons.

"It's so cold," Stiles said as he walked alongside Derek. Derek didn't have the heart to tell him it was a nice day for the colony, Stiles was used to the heat of the ships with their temperature control, instead he just rolled his eyes a little and let the Omega, for the first time, see what the colonies looked like. "The sky's beautiful." Stiles said,"I don't think I've ever seen it like this, and it's so big."

"It's almost like it goes on forever." Derek said calmly, and Stiles bumped him with his shoulder in good nature at the joke.

Stiles was not as pleased with what he saw there. "Why are they so skinny?" he asked,"it's like they're not getting enough food." The ship leaving the colony for Celathion Phi wasn't due to leave until nightfall, it needed refuelling and restocking, even with it being the first ship to leave the colony. "There should be plenty of food."

"There being plenty of food," Derek said,"and them getting enough are two different thing. You know those four tonnes of nutridisks your dad was able to keep track of," they were sat in what had been Derek's old rooms, around a heater although Derek didn't think the day needed it. The thick walls of the colony buildings kept most of the heat in, but Stiles was unused to it so he had started up the heater. "Well it's possible those are the ones going missing."

"Black market?" Everyone knew there was a black market, it was good for luxury items that were forbidden to certain colonies because of political stances etc, but why would someone trade food, which was given away freely, for credits when there were better things to use hold space for."

"Welcome to the colonies." Derek said dryly,"they grow so called Winter Veg here, potatoes, turnips, carrots, that sort of thing, all of which are high in starch and naturally keep well in cold conditions, so why do most of them "spoil" in the warehouses?"

"That's why the colonies are so unhappy, isn't it?" Stiles asked, hands cupped around a cup of tea and his body pressed close against the blanket on the chair to keep the heat in. "They're hungry and see the fat ship born who seem to be hoarding the food, but they're not, we were on a ship full of food, dairy and nuts and other high fat foods. So where is the food going?"

Derek just ducked his head down, but his answer was clear, the AP.

"I have to tell my dad." Stiles told him.

"Not yet," Derek said,"before we board, send him a data burst then with the footage you filmed, he'll believe it more if he sees it. He has doubts as it is, but I don't know if he has the men to overthrow the existing security here."

"Why?" Stiles asked. Derek just shrugged. If he had an answer, he didn't share it, just put his thumb to the corner of the holographic book he was reading to turn the page.

-

The "Lewis and Clarke" was a scow. Giving it any other description was unfair to other ships, it looked barely space worthy, and painted on the side was a stylised rendition of a woman with the tail of snake and her mouth open in song, but her bare breasts were there for the entire port to see. Her red hair was swirling about her head and although the paint was chipped the effect was like she was underwater, Derek took one look at her,"looks kinda like your friend Lydia." Which caused Stiles to react with a surge of jealousy he couldn't comprehend the origin of - Derek was his bondmate but other than that they were strangers, perhaps it was simply that Derek was his alpha and Lydia was another Omega, although that gave him the vision of Derek and Parrish fighting bare chested with a second pang of jealousy, that it wouldn't be for him. He squashed that primal part of his brain down and hefted his pack on his shoulder, following Derek to the small cabin that would be theirs for the next few days because even with a shock drive it would take three days for the "Lewis and Clarke" to reach Celathion, and from there they would take another ship either to Ix or Rift, ideally, but really wherever it was they were going.

Stiles had sent the databurst to his father, sending the code in another message, using a cypher that he and his father had developned in the shadow of the Endymion's loss, when they were trying to cope with the loss of Claudia, the captian's wife and Stiles' mother.

"deaR father, i hOpe this findS you wEll, the forMatting hAs gone awRy, sorrY, more to follow." He uploaded the databurst into the message secure his dad would understand and would begin the work to make sure the people were getting fed. He had spent most of the day filming them surreptitiously from his HUD, the footage wasn't great but it was clear, and it was certainly enough.

The small passenger cabin on the "Lewis and Clarke" was barely a bunk set into the wall with a few shelves, and it was clearly meant to house both of them, which made sense to Stiles as they were presenting themselves as a bonded pair, but the bed was narrow, and he wondered for a moment if they would have to top and tail because he didn't like the idea of Derek shoving feet that had worn felt boots all day into his face. He couldn't imagine Derek was keen on Stiles' toes being shoved into his nose either.

"Close quarters," Derek gruffed. Their cabin on the "Balance" had been much larger, but that mades sense, that was a room to live in, to have babies in - this was a room to get through the journey, and there was a common room although they were the only passengers on board, it had bench seating, a few small circular tables and access to the vending machine that offered food, although it was marked out of order and that meals would be served at certain times which were clearly marked, with the note that if they had any dietary restrictions they were to make sure the crew (there were six of them) were aware in advance.

For the cost of the journey Stiles felt they deserved fed.

Derek was a whole lot less fussed by the sparse conditions than Stiles was. Stiles nevertheless was determined not to show it even when Derek sat down on one of the benches, pulled off his jacket and opened up the book he was reading from his HUD. "Three days, huh, it'll be the mating suite all over."

Derek looked up at him and gave him a half smile. "This time I have a book."

\--

missing scenes here = stiles and derek in bed, stuffed together and talking, I have got to break down these politics before they take over the damn thing, i do not want to write a novel, just a fricking big bang

\--

Celathion was a colony on a planet mostly covered in water. The colony was built on mostly floating platforms and the almost tropical climate, combined with the excess of oxygen in the atmosphere gave the whole place a carnival air. The colony, which made most of it's wealth on types of seaweed that grew in abundance here amidst the floating platforms that were lashed together to form walkways, and upon the largest of which there were buildings. They spoke of it as "the floating city" and the people here, sun brown and carefree were painted with the colours of the locale. Coming from Tau it was a shock to Stiles.

"I can't decide if this is heaven or hell," Stiles said wiping the sweat from the back of his neck before shoving the scrap of cloth he had taken from the "Lewis and Clarke" across the back of his neck. "It's beautiful," a large dark shadow crossed through the water under the metal grille they were walking on, one as large as the Lewis and Clarke had been,"hell, definitely hell." He said, and Derek laughed. It was unexpected to Stiles turned to look at him, Derek was dour and sour, he kept himself to himself apart from occasionally speaking to lance Stiles' wildest fantasies, with wry asides and amused comments, but to hear him laugh was new and exciting to Stiles.

He was a good looking man, but he was beautiful when he laughed.

They were stuck on the colony for four days before the next shuttle left, this one going to the "Seven Pillars" another one of the great ships that served as a mini-colony of it's own, but unlike the "Balance of Judgement" it was a repurposed mining vessel not a warship. The "Pillars" had been a planet cracker, one that mashed up asteroids for their minerals back before the Fall. She sat proud halfway between Celathion Phi and the Caladon colny.

"I'm telling you," the porter was shouting behind them,"I paid my duties, these goods have come through quarantine, I don't know why but I put them through your quarantine, they were ordered, if I can't get them off the dock I can't get paid."

Derek reached out and took Stiles' hand,"record this for your father." He murmured,"this is one of the worst things the AP do."

"What is it?"

"The porter is bringing food from Tau, all of which is flash frozen and pasteurised, the AP are refusing to let it in, but it can't stay in the freezer holds because it's needed for new cargo, so it sits on the dock and rots unless a very large bribe is paid, off the books."

"How often does this happen?" Stiles asked, he couldn't help it.

"Almost every time." Derek said, "now come on."


	2. what was going to happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the notes for how this story was going to go

I completely forgot to post this earlier  
but this is what was going to happen

Stiles and Derek make their way through the colonies to a place called Rift where lawlessness is the norm, where Derek takes Stiles to see a bandit king called the Eyeless/Blind King who is Deucalion, Duke it's revealed was Talia's XO and who gave Derek the false identity. Duke was blinded by an "accident" caused by the AP so Talia sent him to Ix to get new eyes (the same eyes as Marin to Stiles' delight) and as a show of faith in him sent Derek with him. That's how Derek escaped Kate blowing up the Endymion. When Stiles gets there he recognises him as the sheriff's son who is working against the AP and tells Stiles that Talia was too and it got her ship blown up so he has to warn his dad but also that there is evidence, though he doesn't know where it is, that the AP sabotaged the Exedrine experiment and have been building anti ship sentiment for years, but although he's got six years worth of proof he doesn't know what Talia found or where she put the proof, Stiles reveals he knew almost from the bonding suite that Derek was Hale not Heyworth but he figured he was keeping the secret for a reason, and knew Kate was as likely to be after him as Stiles.

the AP, who are banned from Rift, storm the station led by Chris Argent who finds Stiles smell repellant and Stiles goads him about it, suggesting that he might be an alpha because of his reaction, and wonders if it's possible to operate to remove the glands which cause the knot, because O-females are indistinguishable except by bloodtest from beta females, and A-males are the same with beta males - except for the knot. So remove the knot and you could pass most inspections, but not a blood test, Argent denies it and Stiles points out how easy the HUD are to hack, after all he hacked his and Derek's so they read as beta.

Deucalion manages to get them out and towards Solarian Prime which is run by the "church" who are as anti AP as Derek is, he learns that one of the main church leaders is his uncle Peter, who again doesn't have the proof but knew the AP blew up the Endymion, it looks like they're going to be secure there when it becomes clear that the church has been infiltrated and probably for a very long time when lower members are found murdered, Peter moves them on to Ix but the records say they're going back to the Balance.

Stiles tries to hack the HUDs again and discovers Derek has a shock implant like his own, but no controller, and probably never had one, and when he starts fuddling about with the mechanics he finds a chip that should not be there. It's loaded with coded data, but they don't know the code, but it appears to have something to do with the endymion's logo. (Remember Stiles mom died on the Endymion too)  
Kate confronts them and is disgusted by the fact Stiles mated when he was promised to her, Stiles briefly wonders if Deaton knew this, when an explosion on her ship allows them to escape and move towards Ix

As they travel Stiles cracks the code, his first name is the code combined with the chip in his pendant (I wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't important) reveals Gerard wanted to become emperor of the colonies or soemthing similar, and fostered the distrust with the ships, also isolating the ships from the colonies and fudging population numbers to do so - ie they thought the statistics were much worse than they were, and creating the idea of irregulars (it might have been before then but it was the argents) and talia found everything, even the compatibility ratings were poisoned by AP tech and viruses. It was set up to fail so the AP could sweep in, when it wasn't doing it fast enough they started hoarding and destroying food, denying people medical care (saying they weren't shipborn so didn't get access to the medical care on board ship which was a blatant lie) and creating a black market to discredit the ships and replacing their security

Stiles doesn't send it to his dad but hacks the news feeds and starts running it all on loop as they move towards Ix  
\---  
so you can see why it wasn't going to happen in the deadline

 

On Ix they set up a small home where Stiles can work in electronics and Derek works with the farmers, the last image was always going to be a pregnant stiles smiling at derek coming home.


End file.
